Stories of Communities That Came Together
In Spring Valley, New York, Haitian and Chassidic neighbors banded together to help victims of the deadly earthquake that shook Haiti in August of 2021. Shelf-stable food and hygiene items were packed by local yeshivah students in boxes stenciled with the slogan “With Love From the Jewish Community.”
Courtesy of Masbia
Some five decades ago, a small group of Orthodox Jewish friends in Southfield, Michigan, the suburb of Detroit where the majority of the city’s Jewish population lives, formed a weekly minyan. When the minyan outgrew members’ living rooms, they met to daven at the nearby Adlai Stevenson Elementary School.
Today the Young Israel of Southfield shares a property line and a common parking lot with the elementary school, a two-story brick building that houses a public K-5 institution comprised of about 400 students, most of them African American.
In recent years, the congregation of 140 member families has returned the kindness to the school. Members of Young Israel expanded the “Blessings in a Backpack” government food insecurity program for Stevenson students into a food drive. What’s more, once Covid eliminated many students’ families’ income, the shul collected enough supplies for recipients to feed themselves for two months. “After Covid struck, we quickly realized we needed to do more,” says Andrea Gruber, an active member of the shul. “There are fifty students who receive breakfast and lunch daily, and when school is on vacation, they are often hungry,” she says. “Our cereal drive helped alleviate some of their breakfast worries.”
As part of its “Neighbor to Neighbor” project, Young Israel of Southfield has also set up a free food cabinet, outfitted with non-perishables and open 24/7 outside the school; provided food boxes that were placed by synagogue members in recipients’ cars during the quarantine at the height of the pandemic; held a holiday gift drive on behalf of the members’ non-Jewish neighbors, providing gifts and gift cards, as well as tablets for students to continue their remote learning; held cereal drives and glove drives for Stevenson families; and initiated a tutoring program, conducted remotely during the pandemic and now back to in-person sessions.
When a local African American family lost their home to a fire during Covid, Gruber says “shul members reached out financially as well as in other ways to help this family get through the first few days until their insurance company could come through for them. This is what good neighbors do . . . we care about one another.”
Like the Young Israel synagogue, other Orthodox shuls throughout North America, ranging from Modern Orthodox to Chassidic, have engaged in similar altruistic projects on a macro and micro level to help their non-Jewish and non-Orthodox neighbors and improve inter-group relations. The common motivation for these efforts is to create strong bonds and friendships across a religious-ethnic divide before problems arise.
Rabbi Adir Posy, who oversees the OU’s work with shuls across the country in his role as national director of OU Synagogue Initiatives, says that dozens of shuls have made it a priority to foster positive community relations. And in the face of growing antisemitism, this kind of community building is more important than ever. “In places where there have been antisemitic acts, plenty of non-Jewish residents came out in a show of support for their Jewish neighbors, precisely because of the good relationships that were built.”
Efforts to build good relations work both ways.
“When there is a neighborhood gathering or a new neighbor moves in, I receive personal calls from the Homeowners Association [in Michigan every neighborhood has its own HOA] asking if the new neighbors keep kosher, to ensure that welcome food gifts are appropriate,” says Gruber. And at the block parties, there’s always kosher food. “We have great neighbors; we don’t see the color of their skin and they don’t see our religion.”
“Instead of being reactive, we work to be proactive in building strong and caring relationships with our neighbors,” says Rabbi Yechiel Morris, rav of the Southfield shul since 2002. The work of the Young Israel parents and children is a leading example of the proactive organized activities that Orthodox shuls are conducting to reduce the misunderstandings and stereotypes that have become common in many US cities.
Activities in various communities have included:
• Under the leadership of Rabbi Daniel Cohen, Congregation Agudath Sholom in Stamford, Connecticut, has taken part in serving holiday meals at a local homeless shelter, partnered with local non-Jews in preparing holiday packages for US troops overseas and sponsored a series of carpe diem programs to encourage members of the community to look for individual mitzvah opportunities. The shul also sponsors food programs for local non-Jewish single mothers and their children.
• In Spring Valley, New York, Haitian and Chassidic neighbors banded together to help victims of the deadly earthquake that shook Haiti in August of 2021. The Jewish community of Rockland County contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the cause, in addition to supplies donated by Chassidic-run companies. Similarly, when tragedy struck in the Bronx neighborhood of New York City and a horrific fire took the lives of seventeen people, Chassidic groups from Boro Park set up a relief tent near the scene of the tragedy and began serving hot food to survivors and first responders. Additionally, the Chassidic volunteers purchased and distributed emergency supplies, beverages and snacks to the fire survivors, most of whom were immigrants from West Africa.
When a horrific fire took the lives of seventeen people in the Bronx neighborhood of New York City, Chassidic groups from Boro Park set up a relief tent near the scene of the tragedy and began serving hot food to survivors and first responders. Courtesy of Masbia
Inspired by the work of first responders on 9/11, Fair Lawn’s Congregation Shomrei Torah, which has a few congregants who are 9/11 survivors, began running a hakarat hatov program aimed at showing gratitude to the local members of the police and fire departments, as well as to the EMS workers, most of them non-Jewish. “We wanted to make a meaningful, commemorative event,” says Rabbi Andrew Markowitz. Over the past few years, on a Shabbat close to September 11, the shul invites town officials and first responders to attend a lavish kiddush in their honor after Shabbat morning services. First responders are ushered in at the close of davening to a round of applause, and Rabbi Markowitz speaks, emphasizing how appreciative the community is for their efforts. A town official usually speaks as well.
The men and women honored by his synagogue now “understand Orthodox Jews a little better,” says Robert Isler, a member of the shul. Now, when the congregation or its members call on first responders for assistance, he says, “we’re not calling on strangers.”
Because of the good relationships the Jewish community has built, Rabbi Markowitz says he can “call the mayor at any moment if there’s an issue and we can talk.” At the same time, Rabbi Markowitz makes sure to be there when town officials need him. One year, they requested that he be the guest speaker at a 9/11 first responder event sponsored by the town and held on a Saturday night. Rabbi Markowitz made sure to dash out of shul right after Shabbat, showing up just as he was about to be introduced on the podium.
Maintaining good communal relations is “part of the mission of being Am Yisrael,” says Rabbi Markowitz. “We are living among everyone else. Especially in the high-tension world in which we live, we need to serve as an example of how everyone can get along.”
Steve Lipman is a frequent contributor to Jewish Action.
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